Oleg Taktarov

Taktarov is of mixed Mari and Russian background. He started his experience in martial arts at 12, when he took up both judo and sambo. He started competing in those disciplines during his obligatory military service, at one point also becoming a hand-to-hand instructor for the KGB, until he retired at 22 in order to become a businessman. However, according to Taktarov, in 1989 he would find himself attracted to a jacketed mixed martial arts event called Jujutsu Full Contact, whose four first editions he won in dominant fashion. He also trained in jujutsu around this time, becoming a four time European champion. In October 1993, Taktarov and a training partner participated in the White Dragon MMA tournament in Latvia, but were forced to flee from the country due to political tensions. He would land in United States, as he planned to pursue a film acting career, though this would be delayed by his lack of fluency in English language. ==Mixed martial arts career==

Originally travelling to North America, the goal of Taktarov was originally to become an actor but he decided to become a professional fighter in order to gain a visa extension. In order to get in touch with Hollywood actors, and having watched the Ultimate Fighting Championship event UFC 2, Taktarov contacted the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in 1994, offering himself to train Royce Gracie in sambo leglocks. Although he was accepted as a training partner after proving his skill against several instructors, he was ultimately rejected due to his inability to pay the fee. Taktarov next contacted the UFC management in order to participate himself for the prize money, being advised that he was already familiar with that kind of competition and had a chance of winning. He was finally accepted into the UFC 5 tournament in April, and would later find out that the Gracie family had previously pressed to keep him out of the UFC. After the event, Taktarov went to train with Ken Shamrock in his Lion's Den fighting team. He described this time as: "For a month Ken and I fought together. The guys who later became good fighters, like Frank Shamrock or Guy Mezger, were not any competition for me at the time. The only guy I trained with was Ken, and we had battles behind closed doors. Nobody was allowed to watch them." The bout was hard-fought, with Abbott dominating the grappling exchanges and scoring punches while Taktarov remained patient and counterattacked with a variety of strikes and submission attempts. After 17 minutes of back and forth action, with both fighters looking devoid of energy, Taktarov locked a rear naked choke for the tournament victory. He had to be taken to the hospital right after with an oxygen mask on. He was later quoted as, "when I went to the hospital after the fight, they said I barely had enough water in my system, only about one gallon." Taktarov then entered the UFC's Ultimate Ultimate 1995 tournament. He rematched Dave Beneteau, who according to Taktarov came to the match having greased himself to difficult the Russian's grip. Taktarov ended his UFC career after Ultimate Ultimate, according to him because the management was focused on Shamrock over any other fighter. Return to mixed martial arts Prior to making a successful comeback to the sport in 2007, Taktarov's last bout was in 2001. Taktarov announced in an online radio interview in November 2007 his plans to return to MMA with BodogFight. He won his debut match against John Marsh at 33 seconds into the 2nd round of the match by submission (kneebar). His last fight was against UFC 14 and UFC 15 heavyweight champion Mark Kerr, again winning by kneebar. Taktarov retired from mixed martial arts with a record of 17 wins, 5 losses, and 2 draws. ==Submission grappling career==

In 1998, Taktarov competed at the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. He had previously trained with Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners Wallid Ismail, Ricardo Libório and Carlos Barreto. Taktarov fought a "superfight" with multiple champion Mário Sperry, who ultimately defeated Taktarov by points after passing his guard. ==Acting career==

After temporarily retiring from mixed martial arts, Taktarov focused on his acting career and starred in the movies Air Force One, Righteous Kill, Bad Boys II, National Treasure, 15 Minutes, 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out and the 2002 version of Rollerball. He also appeared in the first episode of season 3 of Alias entitled The Two and in the NCIS season 5 finale Judgement Day. He has also appeared in a few Russian productions, and was cast in a few releases from 2007, such as We Own the Night. Taktarov also released several instructional Sambo videos and has made an instructional video with Vladimir Vasiliev entitled Russian Mega Fighting. Taktarov more recently starred in Den of Thieves (as Alexi), Robert Rodriguez's franchise sequel, Predators, directed by Nimród Antal. He is a leading actor in the Russian television series Ex-Wife. In 2022, he played The Man from Moscow in the film The Man from Toronto. ==Filmography==

==Championships and accomplishments==

• Ultimate Fighting Championship • UFC 5 tournament semi-finalist • First Russian UFC champion • UFC 6 tournament winner • UFC Viewer's Choice Awardee (one of ten) • Ultimate Ultimate 1995 runner-up • UFC Encyclopedia Awards • Fight of the Night (Two times) vs. Ernie Verdicia and Tank Abbott • Submission of the Night (Two times) vs. Ernie Verdicia and Dave Beneteau • Iron Gladiators • 1994 Iron Gladiators Competition winner (twice) == Mixed martial arts record ==

== Exhibition boxing record ==

== Submission grappling record ==